Brain Damage
by Bradley Allen
Summary: A young man loses his job, and tries to get revenge by hacking into Haas-Bioroid's network. It... doesn't go well. (Short chapters. Rated M for language.)
1. Chapter 1

He'd had enough.

They'd announced today that the prep staff were going bioroid. All seventeen of them. The owner kept talking about how sorry he was, that it was just good business sense, but it didn't matter. He'd spent five months looking before he finally got that shitty job prepping soy patties, and now he couldn't even do that.

_Haas-Bioroid claims another victim_, his brother would say. _Shut up, Mike._

_I'm not going to be a victim._


	2. Chapter 2

Jeremy took a seat at his brother's console and punched the power button. A yellow LED flashed, and then a chorus of whirring fans sang a B-flat as the machine came to life.

A minute later, a message came in from someone Jeremy didn't recognize.

**ey fuzz ur on early**

"Fuzz? Oh yeah, Mike's dumb handle." Jeremy debated whether to impersonate his brother, but thought better of it. If Mike knew this guy, though, maybe he could help.

** Not Fuzz, his brother. I'm borrowing his rig to take a crack at Haas-Bioroid.**

**ur kidding right? HB is serious, they dont fuck around**

** They took my job.**

**urs and everyone elses fuzzbro, but u dont know what ur up against**

** But you do. Will you help?**

**shit, u aint kidding. ill talk u through wat u find but ur runnin solo**

** Fine. Where can I do the most damage?**

**if u wanna stop the bioroids u gotta go right to the source. their main r&d server has the data u want**

** Where is it?**

**goddammit ur so fucked. i can show u once ur jacked in**

Jeremy pushed the keyboard away, then reached for the eegset. His brother liked to brag about it, how it was the fastest way to get around the net, and his was top of the line. Jeremy carefully set the electrodes in place, then shut his eyes and flipped the blinding visor down.

When he opened his eyes, everything had changed. His desk, his house, everything was gone, replaced by a neon grid, like city streets, skyscrapers of light in every direction. He was wearing a police uniform, although its authenticity was belied by a badge which simply read, "The Fuzz." On the ground at his feet sat a small, unmarked briefcase. Ahead of him was a cannabis plant in a large garden pot, floating off the ground, its leaves spinning like tiny helicopter blades.

The plant spoke.

"Alright, if you're gonna run at HB's R&D, we've gotta get to the right address block. Grab that briefcase and follow me."

The plant zoomed away, and Jeremy quickly followed, darting in and out and around the grid, too fast to keep track. The lights grew darker, purple in color, and… _colder_, somehow. A voice in the distance was reading off an ad about effectiveness and reliability.

"This's the place, Fuzzbro. The entry point is through there. Last I checked, they had three layers of ice. They got a turret out front that'll fuck up your rig, and then they'll try to snow you out. And if you get through that… there's Heimdall. If you stay real slow and quiet, you might get past him."

"And if he catches me?"

The plant seemed to pause in midair for a moment. "Motherfucker's a Norse god. Pray?"

"Great."

"Last chance to back out."

"Hell no. I'm gonna hurt those sons of bitches."

"Your brother keeps some things in that case that'll help with that. Nice knowin' you, Fuzzbro."


	3. Chapter 3

_Heh, this isn't so bad. Can't believe how easily I faked out that turret. All I did was put a mask on!_

Jeremy walked down a long hallway, flanked on either side by posters advertising various Haas-Bioroid product lines.

_What'd he say was next? They'll "snow me out," whatever that means. Mike didn't have any snow gloves or goggles or anything in that case._

Further down the hall, the well-defined lines of the corridor seemed to blur together.

_Come to think of it, some goggles would really… _"Aaaaahh!"

The rush came suddenly, with a terrible shriek and a hissing sound, and Jeremy found himself caught in a fog of static. The walls began to fade, and the posters started to glitch and disappear from view.

Jeremy popped the case open. Apart from the mask, the only other item inside was a weapon—a beam gun, like the kind soldiers in threedees use. Desperate, he took the gun and fired it down the hallway. The beam splintered instantly, bouncing and refracting before being overwhelmed by the noise and static.

"Come on, come on…!"

The static was getting worse. He pressed a button on the side of the weapon, then fired again. This time, the beam cut through the static before splitting into a grid of light beams that tiled itself around him, forming a cage. The cage solidified into walls of translucent glass, and the noise stopped.

Jeremy paused for a moment to catch his breath, and then pressed his hand against the glass. The tiles in the cage began to fracture, cracking and then shattering into shards of red and green and blue.

He was in a large forest clearing. Trees surrounded the space, and shrubs and boulders dotted the uneven landscape. At the other end of the clearing stood a massive bioroid, at least three times Jeremy's size, wearing a horned helmet, shield and broadsword in hand. The bioroid stood motionless as a statue, his eyes shut.

_Heimdall. Jesus, he's huge._

Jeremy ducked behind a nearby boulder, then took a moment to look around.

_If I'm slow and quiet, I might get past him. Might._

He held his breath, stepped out, and carefully made his way to another hiding place, then looked up.

The bioroid hadn't so much as twitched.

Quietly inching his way across the field, Jeremy moved from boulder to shrub to boulder, doing his best to avoid making any sudden movements or sounds. When he was halfway across the field, he looked up again.

Heimdall was gone!

"I HAVE ALLOWED YOU TO HIDE FOR LONG ENOUGH."

Jeremy jumped, and turned to find the towering bioroid standing right behind him, sword raised in preparation for battle. Jeremy screamed and fired his gun, but the beam reflected harmlessly off Heimdall's enormous shield. A horn sounded in the distance, and Heimdall's sword came crashing into Jeremy's skull.


	4. Chapter 4

"AAAAHH! FUCK!"

Jeremy ripped the eegset off of his head. He had come so close! He wanted to put a stop to Haas-Bioroid, but all it got him was a headache and a terrifying encounter with a god. He walked to the kitchen to take some painkillers.

_It just isn't fair_, he thought, as he drank a glass of water.

It wasn't fair that Haas-Bioroid made finding a job so hard. It wasn't fair that they took it away once you finally found one. It wasn't fair that the only way to fight back was to break in, like those hackers they talk about on the newsvids. Like his brother. His brother always seemed to make things work. It just wasn't fair.

God, his head hurt so bad. He needed some painkillers. Or did he already take some? Dammit, can't remember.

He swam another glass of water. I mean, drank.

Things weren't lining up quite right. The room seemed bigger than it was before. Must be a trick of the light. Some kind of charade.

The bells are ringing really loud. And those lights, voices. Like crazy talk. Can't make sense of any of it.

The money, at noon. They'd better count it, or everything'll be fucked up. Gotta stay careful. No, I've never esyvjrf dpsq pqrtsd om gtpmy pg yjr nsml. X izen cwjn nc hv uwvvvvvvvvvvvvvv…


End file.
